The Fight for the Bridge 
and the Luckiest Shot

Piloted by Staff Sgt. Jim Wallwork (1919-2013), the first glider, with Howard aboard, landed fast and hard, ripping off its wheels in a shower of sparks and burying its nose in the German barbed wire only a few yards from the bridge, “not because Howard wanted me to, not because I was particularly brave or awfully skilled, but because I didn’t want to be rear-rammed by Number Two or Number Three coming in behind me,” Wallwork told Steven Ambrose in an interview for Ambrose’s Pegasus Bridge. A German sentry pacing on the bridge assumed a shot-down Allied aircraft had crashed. Before he realized his mistake, the second and third gliders crashed down. The British quickly recovered from the shock of landing and swarmed onto the road. Leading the charge across the bridge, Lt. Herbert Denham Botheridge, 29, was shot, becoming the first Allied soldier killed in action on D-Day. The fourth and fifth gliders landed a short distance to the north and quickly secured the nearby river bridge. The sixth glider mistakenly picked out a bridge over another river, and landed 20 km (12.4 miles) to the east. Within 10 minutes the canal bridge was secured. The pillbox was taken out with a shower of grenades, and some of the Germans were still asleep when Howard’s men broke into their bunkers.

Despite confusion caused by scattered paratroopers and the absence of German commanders (Rommel was driving back to Germany for his wife’s birthday, and many generals were attending a war game in Rennes 100 miles [160 km] to the southwest), the counterattack against Deadstick was not long in coming. About 0130, two Panzer IV tanks rumbled into Bénouville.

The British quickly recovered from the shock of landing and swarmed onto the road. Leading the charge across the bridge, Lt. Herbert Denham Botheridge, 29, was shot, becoming the first Allied soldier killed in action on D-Day.

M.C. “Wagger” Thornton was waiting for them with the company’s only working heavy weapon, a Projector Infantry Anti-Tank or PIAT. Hastily improvised in 1942 and rushed into production, the PIAT was one of the worst weapons of World War II – fragile, inaccurate, difficult to load, and with a kick like a mule. Thornton himself later described it as “a load of rubbish.” A strongly compressed spring drove the firing pin into a cartridge in the tail of a 2.5-pound (1.1 kg) hollow-charge grenade. When it worked, the projectile might fly as far as 100 yards. Thornton would only get one shot; he waited patiently until the tank was about 50 yards away (some observers say as little as 30) and fired.  Miraculously, a direct hit penetrated the lead tank and ignited its ammunition, causing a spectacular series of explosions that caused the second tank and the trailing German infantry to retreat in disorder.

The burning tank blocked the road. The explosions and fire served as a beacon to the scattered British 5th Parachute Brigade, which had begun dropping nearby about 0050. The German lieutenant commanding the second tank reported that the British were strongly fortified with anti-tank guns. Although sniper fire continued through the night, the Germans decided to wait for daylight to organize a stronger counter-attack. Meanwhile, two German gunboats trying to escape up the canal from Ouistreham in the morning were shot up; one was captured and the other turned back. Then, around 1000, a German fighter-bomber appeared, dropping a bomb directly on the bridge; it was a dud. Through it all, Howard and his men obeyed their mission orders: “Hold until relieved.”

Meanwhile, about 4 miles (6 km) to the north, British commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade began landing on Sword Beach at about 0840. Led by Lord Lovat, a Scottish brigadier, along with his personal bagpiper, Bill Millin, the commandos’ mission was to link up with the airborne troops at the Orne bridges by noon. Although they were a little late, just after 1300 the men dug in around Pegasus Bridge heard the unmistakable sound of an approaching piper. It was Lovat and his commandos, who quickly took over the position. Properly relieved, Howard and his men returned to the control of the British 6th Airborne Division.

In the following months of bitter fighting to consolidate the Normandy beachhead, D Company was kept in the line as regular infantry. When it was finally withdrawn on Sept. 5, only 40 of its original 181 men were left. Ambrose observed, “It is indeed a mystery why the War Office squandered D Company. It was an asset of priceless value, a unique company in the whole British Army. Huge sums had been spent on its training. Its combination of training and skills and handpicked officers was unsurpassed. … Despite all this, the War Office allowed D Company to bleed nearly to death in front of the German guns. …”

 

Training, Intelligence Preparation, and Luck

Overlord was an enormous and immensely complex operation. Some parts, like the Utah Beach landings, went better than expected. Other parts, like Omaha Beach and the American parachute drops, went terribly wrong. War is the domain of chaos, but “fortune favors the brave.” The capture of Pegasus Bridge was the closest thing to a perfectly executed special operation that any Allied unit achieved in World War II. The success of this operation was a combination of training, intelligence preparation, and luck.

Today, the site of Operation Deadstick is a regular stop for Normandy war tourists. In 1994, the bridge was replaced, but the original Pegasus Bridge has been preserved nearby as a memorial to a very lucky, well-prepared, and capable group of warriors.

D Company was so well trained that when most of the platoon leaders were killed or wounded early in the action, sergeants and corporals were able to take over and complete the mission. In addition, intensive aerial photo reconnaissance and reports from well-placed agents of the Resistance enabled British intelligence to construct a detailed scale model of the bridge and surrounding area, which was continuously updated and studied by the troops.

Today, the site of Operation Deadstick is a regular stop for Normandy war tourists. In 1994, the bridge was replaced, but the original Pegasus Bridge has been preserved nearby as a memorial to a very lucky, well-prepared, and capable group of warriors.

This article first appeared in The Year in Special Operations: 2014-2015 Edition.